Colpatria Tower

Brief information

Torre Colpatria has an invisible element beneath its visible tower that is almost just as expressive: the foundation descends 50 meters, while 50 floors rise above it. It is an office skyscraper in Bogotá, mostly associated with banking premises, with a height of 196 meters. In the source text, it is called the fourth-tallest building in the country, but its significance is clear not only from its place in the ranking.

The tower was built from 1973 to 1979. Later, its facade began to function as an urban screen: first, 36 xenon lamps with changing colors appeared on it, then they were replaced by LEDs. In this way, the austere office high-rise acquired a second, evening shell that changes the perception of the building’s very form.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to compare three parts of the tower: the roof, the facade, and the internal verticality. In the original description, the roof appears as an observation deck on weekends and holidays, meaning the top of the building is connected not only with engineering and offices, but also with the city viewed from above. The facade is important because of the light: the former 36 xenon lamps, and then LEDs, show that the plane of the building was conceived not as a neutral wall, but as a changing luminous surface.

Inside, the same height is perceived differently: since 2005, speed stair-climbing competitions have been held here. The record mentioned in the text runs through 980 steps, so the tower can be perceived not only as a silhouette on the skyline, but also as a measurable physical distance from the entrance to the top.